Object details
Accession number
T24w2
Primary Creator
Netherlandish, Southern Netherlands
Full title
Amazons Preparing for a Joust
Creation Date
1440-1450
Description
Human figures
Provenance
Probably a duplicate of a large bed hanging (one of a series of eight tapestries depicting Story of Hercules) acquired by the Marquis of Ferrara Leonello d'Este (1407-1450).
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the collection of Emile Peyre (1828-1904), Paris for 33,650 francs on 17 July 1897, through Fernand Robert, her regular agent in Paris.
Marks
Inscribed (the scroll above the gallery, right of center): ORCHIA REGINA MULIERIBUS / ARMA PARARI PRECIPIT ODRIA / QUE MULTU DEBET AMARY (Queen Orchia orders arms to be prepared for the women, and obedience deserves to be much loved)
Dimensions
398.8 x 497.8 cm (157 x 196 in.)
Display Media
Textile fibers on Wool warp (7 yarns per cm); wool and silk wefts
Web Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Permanent Gallery Location
Third Floor Stairhall and Stairway
Bibliography
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 24. (as French Gothic)
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 169.
Ella S. Siple. "Some Recently Identified Tapestries in the Gardner Museum in Boston." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs (1930), pp. 236-41, pl. 1. (as Franco-Flemish, late 15th century)
Morris Carter. "Report of the Director of the Museum." Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Annual Report (1930), p. 24.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), pp. 194-95, pl. 11. (as Franco-Flemish gothic, late 15th century)
Marthe Crick-Juntziger. "De Vlaamsche tapijtweverij in de XIVe, XVe en XVIe eeuwen" in Stan Leurs (ed.). Geschiedenis van de Vlaamsche kunst vol. 1 (Antwerp, 1936), pp. 484-85. (the composition as "reminscent of Van Eyck"; style similar to Tournai tapestry of the 5th and 6th decades of the 15th century"; perhaps as Bruges or Brussels)
Stuart Preston. "The Amazon Queens" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 35.
William Wells. "An unknown Hercules tapestry in the Burrell Collection." Scottish Art Review (1961), p. 30. (as 3rd quarter of the 15th century)
William Wells. "The earliest Flemish tapestries in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow (1380-1475)" in De Bloeitijd van de Vlaamse Tapijtkunst, Internationaal Colloquium (Brussels, 1969), p. 448, n20.
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 34 (24 Apr. 1966), p. 2.
Jean-Paul Asselberghs. Les tapisseries flamandes aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique (Brussels, 1974), p. 12. (as Tournai?, 3rd quarter of the 15th century)
Donald King et al. "A Fifteenth Century Tapestry of The Story of Ahab." Fenway Court (1975), p. 3.
William Wells. Treasures from the Burrell Collection. Exh. cat. (London: Hayward Gallery, 1975), p. 23. (as 1450-1460)
Adolph S. Cavallo. "Seeking a Context for the Amazons tapestry in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston." Bulletin de Liaison du Centre International D'Etude des Textiles Anciens (1984), pp. 27-25, fig. 1. (as 2nd quarter of the 15th century, perhaps 1420-1430)
Adolph S. Cavallo. Textiles: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1986), pp. 20-25, no. 1. (as Flemish, Tournai (?), 1450-1475; in an addendum Cavallo revises his attribution to 2nd quarter of the 15th century, perhaps 1420-1430)
Nello Forti Grazzini. "Leonello d'Este nell'autunno del Medioevo: Gli arazzi delle 'Storie di Ercole' in Alessandra Mottolo Molfino et al. Le muse e il principe: Arte di corte nel Rinascimento padano. Exh. Cat. vol. 2 (Museo Poldi Pezzoli: Milan, 1991), pp. 53-62. (as possibly belonging to Borso d'Este, 1413-1471)
Wolfger A. Bulst. "Das Olympische Turnier des Hercules mit den Amazonen. Flämische Tapisserien am Hofe der Este in Ferrara" in Joachim Poeschke et al. (eds.). Italienische Frührenaissance und nordeuropäisches Spätmittelalter: Unst der frühen Neuzeit im europäischen Zusammenhang (Munich, 1993), pp. 206-16, pl. 4. (believes Cavallo's dating is "too early")
Jennifer R. Gross et al. Threads of Dissent. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1999), pp. 3, 13, ill. (as Flemish, 1450-1475)
Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 72-73, fig. 23. (as Netherlandish, about 1430)
Thomas P. Campbell (ed.). Tapestry in the Baroque: Art and Magnificence. Exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002), pp. 87-88, fig. 47. (the series as "the Story of Hercules"; as Southern Netherlands, about 1440-1450)
Claudia Sandtner. Mobile Ausstattungen am Hof der Este in Ferrara: Arazzi als Repräsentationsform des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. PhD Diss. (Stuttgart: Universität Stuttgart, 2010), pl. 30.
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